Typically, several methods are used to measure the amount of energy expended by an individual during an aerobic workout. The most usual is for the person exercising to keep a steady pace of work for a set amount of time. This results in an indirect measurement of the energy used by the person exercising. Charting the length and intensity of the workout is manual and error-prone. Alternatively, one can use an instrumented machine to directly measure the amount of work that has been done. This type of workout is limited by the configuration of the instrumented machine. These specialized machines are equipped with an on-board microprocessor to monitor a user's activities.
This invention adds an apparatus to the footwear used by the individual to permit a direct measurement of the work performed during an exercise session while permitting a wide variety of styles of exercise to be instrumented. The invention also facilitates the accurate recording of an exercise session by a data transmission facility incorporated into the design. The data transmission is accomplished using a method which permits the data transfer between computer and instrumented footwear to proceed without interfering with other, possible concurrent data transfer sessions.
Athletic footwear has already appeared on the market that has some amount of active electronics built in, an example of this is the athletic shoes that have light emitting diodes ("LED's") that flash when the user walks. This invention adds a processor unit such as a microcontroller or a microprocessor, to each shoe to capture the user's activity and a data transfer coupling to transfer this activity log to a computer (such as a personal computer ("PC")) later use.